Re: Where should guile modules store meta data?

[David Lutterkort <lutter@cise.ufl.edu>]

I think for a simple module system a la MODULA-2 or Python, the everything
in one file approach is much simpler and less complicated. The header-file
plus implementation approach of C is merely a hack to get around the lack
of namespaces/module system in C; if one needs a concise description of
module interfaces we should provide an extraction tool like Eiffel's short,
instead of burdening the programmer with maintaining two files with
essentially the same information. The drawback of having interface and
implementation in one file is that one implementation can only export one
interface, and more importantly, has to use a fixed set of modules for its
implementation ... but stuff like that (link specifications, i.e. which of
three available drawing packages to use) should probably be left to a more
'expert' module system.

Guile's standard module system should be very easy to use and understand,
something like the functionality of the Python module system + renaming on
import ... this is enough for simple scripting tasks. A more complex module
system might be useful for large applications, but I feel that should be an
option, not the standard.

David